Widgets, Gadgets, Toys, Design and Technology by Adam Bidwell...

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  • TrailMaker GPS Logger

    13/02/2010 - 00:44
    In a previous article, I'd posted details of a web application to keep track of training rides, called TrainingTracker. This works, by recording your GPS co-ordinates while you are out training, then uploading them on your return. The tool can then analyse the GPS data to show you things like route, distance travelled, time taken and so on. As a companion to this analysis, I needed an application that would actually capture the GPS data.
     

  • Flickrpaper

    08/02/2010 - 03:10
    Flickr images make for good desktop wallpaper. I spend a lot of time at my computer working, so I prefer something inspiring and a little different to use for my background. The Flickr website is excellent, and they have a perfectly adequate search facility to locate images, but I find myself using it to do the same thing over and over again. So, this toy is an automation of my usual search for wallpaper images.
     

  • XPath Test Tool

    06/02/2010 - 14:32
    Ok, so this one is not a "toy", but more of a tool really. It is quite common these days to be building web, desktop or mobile applications that store some kind of data in an XML format, and those in the know will be aware that this eventually means using something called XPath. This is a tool to help perfect your XPath queries, so that your application is selecting no more and no less than the required data from your XML structure.
     

  • FarEye: Desktop CCTV

    22/10/2009 - 02:34
    Having used the fantastic screensaver application SurveillanceSaver in the past, I wanted a similar program that would run on Vista and Windows 7. I wasn't too fussed about the screensaver aspect of it, because i'm a nosey parker. I just wanted to get straight on with viewing what is happening on the web cams around the world.
     

  • Last.fm Desktop Wallpaper

    24/02/2009 - 16:58
    I've being playing with a desktop application which generates you an image from your last.fm profile . I needed something much more simplistic, that was easy to get to on the web. So I wrote my own.Try it out!Click here to give the application a go. You'll need a valid last.fm username, just select the size and brightness of the image to be generated and the image will be loaded in a separate window.